Disk Cleanup acts like it is working, but it deletes nothing.
I know of no other utility that removes some protected files (like Windows Update leftovers).
I have attempted a fix using SFC and DISM. No go.
Does anyone have any fixes or work-arounds?
I've heard about this in the Slow Ring Insider circles. A new release cycle is just now underway, so I'll check this when my Release Preview machine finishes the upgrade. If it's still not working, try thebookisclosed's Managed Disk Cleanup (mdiskclean.exe) which makes a peachy replacement. Find it at Releases . thebookisclosed/Comet . GitHub.
HTH,
--Ed--
Thanks.
I wondered where the mods would move this to. (I only look at a few of the forums.)
I tried it.
Its interface looks almost exactly like Disk Cleanup, except the "downloads" deletion box remains (removed in version 2004).
And like Disk Cleanup, it does not delete anything. I guess my faults lie in my O. S., not in my apps.
Yes, if it's not working either then we need to see if this gets fixed when 2004 goes into general release.
--Ed--
I just tried "previous Windows installations" by itself and it did get rid of Windows. old. Something interesting going on here. Try that by itself and see if it works for you or not. Trying all the "other stuff" now to see what happens...works too. This was on a machine that had been running Release Preview and just upgraded to 19041.207 yesterday. Let me try my other test machine that's been running Slow Ring (also on 19041.207 now) and see what happens there. I was able to use mdiskclean.exe on that machine to clean up all files except for Windows Defender anti-virus files. But I did have trouble getting it to start unless I used the right-click "Run as administrator" option, and I did have to try to delete stuff one or two items at a time rather than all at once. Something odd is going on. I'm reporting this to Feedback Hub.
Last edited by EdTittel; 17 Apr 2020 at 15:15.
Thanks.
I ran both Disk Cleanup and mdiskclean as administrator. Didn't matter; the Windows Update files were not removed.
Weird. Something is definitely up, but I don't know what it might be. Have you tried other cleanup tools (e.g. WiseCare 365 Free -- I don't recommend CCleaner any more)? Manual removal? Where there's a will, there's usually a way.
HTH,
--Ed--
There's also Wise Disk Cleaner which is more specific for disk and OS operations which is what I use.
I've found that Windows Update cleanup won't work if you've made any tweaks to disable windows updates or else only run manual checks using scripts or third party software. If you have done any of those undo the changes or make sure that Windows Update service is running and will not be disabled next boot.
See:
Storage - Temporary files = C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution\Download ?
Just saying that it might be the problem.
I also read in another forum post that disc cleanup will only clean windows update files after they are 30 - 45 days old.
Last edited by Callender; 17 Apr 2020 at 18:33.
Just for fun, I downloaded the 19041.207 .iso fro uu dump. Used it to perform a repair install (upgrade in place), mainly to generate a windows.old folder.
Disk Cleaner was able to remove that, so it's not completely broken.
I observe that exiting the Insider program (slow ring) is still not allowed. I'm a bit surprised; my memory is poor, but I think that it used to be possible before the release build was generally available, if the process was sufficiently advanced (as might be evident by having no watermark and no expiration date on the build).
I have driver updates blocked, and I haven't tried Callender's suggestion (post 9). Seems a bit random, but it may be worth a try.
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